Happy Birthday, Dave Winer!

Happy Birthday, Dave Winer!
大衛．外訥，祝你五十大壽 順心快樂！

Dave Winer 的 Scripting News，算是少數歷史悠久的 blog；我從它還是電子報版時就開始看了，這一路看過來，算是見證了 blog 的興起。他對網際網路的應用，有獨到的見解，不隨波逐流，這是我愛看他的 blog 的原因。他發展出了 XML-RPC 以及 RSS；前者是微軟 SOAP、.Net 的基礎，後者是讓讀者能夠閱讀 (訂閱) 數量龐大的 blogs 的重要機制，也是近日 Podcast 能夠普及的重要因素。雖然他是學數學、以寫電腦程式為生的 geek，但是他有深刻的人文關懷與一顆赤子之心。當年他寫了一篇《給子女的誓詞》，我深受感動，還把它做為我給我兒子、女兒的約定哩。他寫道：

A set of vows, from parent to child:

I promise to love, honor and respect you. To protect you from harm, to feed you well. To teach you to live in this world, to the best of my ability. To always speak the truth, directly, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I promise to listen to you. I acknowledge that you're a separate being from me who the universe has trusted me to care for. I didn't create you any more than you created me.

I forgive you now, and always, unconditionally.

You are my son. You are not me, you are not my mother or father, you are not who I think you are. I expect to be surprised!

I celebrate your existence every day of my life, with my entire being.

他在五十歲生日前夕，立下了一個小小的願望，希望祝賀的卡片、e-mail，用 blog 來發表，好讓他滿足登上 Technorati list 排行榜的慾望。所以，我也就順從他的要求，特立此誌。

並以孔子的「五十而知天命」贈與 Dave Winer。

P.S. You can use AltaVista Babel Fish Translation service (Chinese-traditional to your language) to translate this article, in case Chinese is not your language.